JP2008135280A - Light compensation type discharge lamp lighting device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a light compensation type discharge lamp lighting device superior in starting performance. <P>SOLUTION: The light compensation type discharge lamp lighting device 10 comprises a discharge lamp 20 having a built-in starting means 26 to generate a high voltage pulse at the time of starting operation under a certain temperature or lower and an incandescent lamp 22 which is lighted in a period until the discharge lamp 20 is lighted and reaches a prescribed luminous energy after lighting operation of the discharge lamp 20. The discharge lamp lighting device 10 is provided with a ballast 14 to supply lighting electrical power to the discharge lamp and an external starter 12 which is arranged outside of the discharge lamp and generates a high voltage pulse after passing a certain delayed time from the lighting operation. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a light-compensated discharge lamp lighting device, and more particularly to an improvement in its starting control mechanism.

Discharge lamps such as metal vapor discharge lamps have various advantages such as a large amount of light and a long life compared to power consumption, but on the other hand, dielectric breakdown by high-pressure pulses is necessary at the start, and for a while after lighting During this period, the amount of light is low and it takes time to reach a stable state.
In particular, the point that it takes time for the light amount to reach the maximum value after the lighting operation is a lot of complaints from users, and improvement is required.
As one of the methods for compensating the light quantity at the time of starting, a light source that reaches the maximum light quantity, such as an incandescent lamp, is turned on together with the discharge lamp during the lighting operation, and after the lighting operation, the discharge lamp is not lit for a long period. A so-called light-compensated discharge lamp lighting device is known in which the amount of light is compensated with an incandescent lamp during the period of light, and the incandescent lamp is turned off when a certain amount of time has passed and the amount of light of the discharge lamp is close to the maximum value. (Kaihei 10-334725).

On the other hand, lamps that require a special starter, such as a metal vapor discharge lamp, are commonly used with a built-in starter. Generally, this built-in type starter is composed of a nonlinear capacitor FEC, a bimetal switch, and the like, and the lighting of the lamp is detected by the bimetal switch as a temperature change and the oscillation of the high voltage pulse is stopped.
However, when such a discharge lamp with a built-in starter is turned on with a general light-compensated lighting device, it takes time to turn on the discharge lamp and then restart it by turning it off. Sometimes it could not be restarted.
That is, in the starter built-in type discharge lamp, as described above, a bimetal switch is used to detect a lighting state or a restartable time. However, in the light-compensated discharge lamp lighting device, the incandescent lamp is turned on when the discharge lamp goes out, so the temperature drop in the projector is extremely slow, and it takes time until the bimetal switch is turned on. This is because the temperature does not decrease to the turn-on temperature.
As described above, although the starter built-in type discharge lamp has an excellent advantage that it can be lit by various lighting devices, when it is used in a light compensation type lighting device, a problem arises in restartability.

On the other hand, although it is not a light compensation type, there is also a lighting device equipped with an external starter, which detects whether it is cold start or restart based on the ballast temperature, and is built-in type during cold start when the ballast temperature is low A technique for improving restartability by using an starter and using an external starter at the time of restart when the ballast temperature is high has been developed (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-50890).
However, even if such an improved discharge lamp lighting device is used as a light-compensated discharge lamp lighting device and a discharge lamp with a built-in starter is used, the discharge lamp or the like whose starting performance has deteriorated over time can be cooled. In some cases, it took a long time to start.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-334725 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-50890

  The present invention has been made in view of the above prior art, and a problem to be solved is to provide a light-compensated discharge lamp lighting device having excellent startability.

  As a result of detailed investigations on the startability of the discharge lamp with a built-in starter by the present inventors, when the starting condition of the external starter is made dependent on the ballast temperature as in JP-A-9-50890, In the case of a discharge lamp with reduced starting performance, an external starter that can generate large starting energy does not start during cold starting, and the starting characteristics are further deteriorated due to the heat of the incandescent lamp that has been lit for a long time. It became clear that the internal starter was also unable to start due to the off operation.

In order to solve the above problems, a light-compensated discharge lamp lighting device according to the present invention includes a discharge lamp having a built-in starter that generates a high-pressure pulse during a starting operation at a constant temperature or lower, and after the lighting operation of the discharge lamp, In a light-compensated discharge lamp lighting device having an incandescent lamp that is lit during a period from when the discharge lamp is turned on until the predetermined amount of light is reached,
A ballast for supplying lighting power to the discharge lamp;
An external starter that is arranged outside the discharge lamp and generates a high-pressure pulse after a certain delay time has elapsed since the lighting operation;
It is provided with.

In the light compensation type discharge lamp lighting device, the delay time is preferably 60 seconds or more.
In the light compensation type discharge lamp lighting device, it is preferable that the external starter is installed in the ballast, and the pulse generating coil is also used as the choke coil of the ballast.

  Since the light compensated discharge lamp lighting device according to the present invention starts an external starter that can generate a high-energy start pulse when the discharge lamp does not light for a certain time after the lighting operation as described above, Good starting performance can be obtained both during cold start and during restart, and in particular, a discharge lamp whose starting performance has deteriorated over time can be lit in a short time. Of course, by providing a delay time, an overload on the lighting device or the discharge lamp due to simultaneous activation of the internal starter and the external starter is suppressed to a minimum.

  As described above, according to the present invention, a starter built-in type discharge lamp that can be used in various lighting devices such as a light-compensated lighting device and a popular lighting device that does not have an external starter. It is possible to expect good startability by an external starter even in a light-compensated lighting device in which the start environment is not preferable due to the heat of the adjacent incandescent lamp while fully exhibiting the characteristics. As a result, the versatility of the starter built-in type discharge lamp is further expanded.

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration of a light compensation type discharge lamp lighting device 10 according to a first embodiment of the present invention.
In the figure, the lighting device 10 includes a ballast 14 in which an external starter 12 is installed, and a controller 16.
In addition, a discharge lamp 20 and an incandescent lamp 22 are provided in the inverted conical projector 18.

Electric power is supplied to the ballast 14 from a commercial power supply 24, and the ballast 14 supplies lighting power to the discharge lamp 20 via the controller 16.
Further, it is possible to supply lighting power from the commercial power supply 24 to the incandescent lamp 22 through the controller 16.

When the lighting device 10 is connected to the commercial power supply 24 by a lighting operation, the controller 16 lights the incandescent lamp 22 while detecting the lamp current of the discharge lamp 26, and detects the lamp current (the discharge lamp 26 The lighting power supply to the incandescent lamp 22 is stopped when a certain time (for example, about 3 minutes) has elapsed since the lighting.
In the present embodiment, the discharge lamp 20 includes an internal starter 26 including an FEC and a bimetal switch.

The light-compensated discharge lamp lighting device 10 according to the present embodiment is configured as described above, and the operation thereof will be described below.
First, when the lighting device 10 is connected to the commercial power supply 24 (lighting operation), the controller 16 turns on the incandescent lamp 22 as shown in FIG. On the other hand, the ballast 14 supplies power to the discharge lamp 20, but the external starter 12 has not started yet at this point.
Then, the internal starter 26 is activated by supplying power to the discharge lamp 20, and a high-pressure pulse is generated to light the lamp.

The bimetal switch of the internal starter 26 is turned off by the temperature rise of the discharge lamp 20 accompanying this lighting, and the high-pressure pulse by the internal starter 26 is stopped.
Furthermore, since the incandescent lamp 22 is turned off after a lapse of a certain time after the discharge lamp 20 is turned on, light is projected only by the discharge lamp 20 that has obtained a sufficient amount of light.

  Thus, during cold lighting, the internal starter 26 starts immediately, but the external starter 14 does not start, so that high-pressure pulses from both starters are superimposed and an excessive burden is placed on the lighting device 10 or the discharge lamp 20. There is nothing. The start-up delay time of the external starter 14 is a time sufficient for lighting the rated discharge lamp with the internal starter, preferably 5 seconds or more, and more preferably 60 seconds or more.

On the other hand, when the discharge lamp 20 is extinguished due to an instantaneous power failure or the like, the incandescent lamp 22 is turned on, light compensation is performed, and the discharge lamp 20 must be restarted.
However, the temperature in the projector 18 is high, and the cooling rate is extremely slow due to the lighting of the incandescent lamp 22. Therefore, the internal starter 26 of the discharge lamp 20 does not start because its bimetal switch remains Off.
Therefore, after a certain delay time (for example, 60 seconds), the external starter 12 is started and the generation of the high-pressure pulse is started, so that the discharge lamp 20 is restarted.

As described above, according to the lighting device according to the present embodiment, by providing a delay time for starting the external starter, the internal starter is used at the cold start, and the external starter is used at the restart. Since the lighting operation is performed, in any case, the discharge lamp can be started in a short time, and overload to the device due to simultaneous activation of the internal starter and the external starter can be suppressed. .
As is well known, since the temperature of the discharge lamp is high at the time of extinction-restarting, the external starter is configured to be able to supply larger energy than the internal starter.

  On the other hand, the discharge lamp also takes time to cold start with time. In this case, in the configuration disclosed in the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-50890, the temperature of the ballast does not increase substantially, and an external starter that can supply a large amount of energy cannot be started. In addition, the incandescent lamp continues to light even during the period when the internal starter of the discharge lamp attempts to start, the temperature inside the projector rises, and in some cases, the bimetal switch of the internal starter is turned off, making it impossible to light.

  That is, as shown in FIG. 3A, since the incandescent lamp is lit during the non-lighting period of the discharge lamp even during a cold start, the temperature inside the projector continues to rise, and the discharge lamp whose startability has decreased Is more difficult to start, and in some cases, the temperature inside the projector exceeds the bimetal switch Off temperature of the internal starter, and the pulse generation by the internal starter stops. Since the ballast temperature does not rise during this time, the external starter is not activated in the conventional apparatus.

However, as shown in FIG. 3 (B), according to the present invention, an external starter can be used regardless of the temperature inside the projector and the ballast temperature after a certain delay time (for example, 60 seconds) has elapsed since the start of the discharge lamp. Is activated and a high energy pulse is supplied to the discharge lamp. As a result, even a discharge lamp whose starting characteristics have deteriorated somewhat with time can be appropriately lit.
Thus, in the present invention, the external starter is activated regardless of the temperature of the ballast after a certain delay time, so that the discharge lamp which is difficult to be lit is appropriately lit by the large starting energy.

FIG. 4 shows the configuration of the controller 16 according to the present embodiment.
As shown in the figure, the controller 16 includes a lamp current detection circuit 50, an electronic timer 52, a signal inverting element 54, and a triac (switching element) 56. Then, while the lamp current is not detected, the triac 56 continues the On operation and supplies the lighting power to the incandescent lamp 22. Then, the electronic timer 52 counts the time after the lamp current is detected by the lamp current detection circuit 50, and when a certain time, for example, 3 minutes elapses, the timer 52 gives an instruction to the signal inverting element 54 and turns off the triac 56. The incandescent lamp 22 is turned off by operating. In the present embodiment, the count time by the timer 52 is set to a period in which the light amount is about 70% of the maximum value after the discharge lamp 20 is turned on. Note that when the discharge lamp 20 is extinguished, the controller 16 stops detecting the lamp current, so that the triac 56 is turned on and the lighting of the incandescent lamp is resumed.

FIG. 5 shows the configuration of the ballast 14 and the external starter 16 according to the present embodiment.
As shown in the figure, the ballast 14 has a choke coil 14a, and the external starter 12 has a pulse stop function starter 60 connected to the intermediate tap c1 of the coil 14a, a bypass capacitor 62, a time constant. And a setting resistor 64.
The starter 60 does not oscillate for a certain period of time (for example, 1 minute) after the power is turned on, and then generates a high-energy high-voltage pulse using the coil 14a as a pulse transformer. In this embodiment, a delay timer circuit is incorporated in a general-purpose starter.
Thus, according to the external starter 16 according to the present embodiment, since the coil of the ballast 14a is also used as a pulse generating coil, a small and high energy pulse can be generated.

FIG. 6 shows a light-compensated discharge lamp lighting device according to a second embodiment of the present invention. The parts corresponding to those of the first embodiment are denoted by reference numeral 100 and the description thereof is omitted.
What is characteristic in this embodiment is that the external starter 112 and the ballast 114 are housed in the projector 118.

In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 5 in particular, the ballast coil can be used as the pulse coil of the external starter, so that the size can be reduced extremely effectively.
The present invention is particularly suitable for application to a metal vapor discharge lamp that requires time to restart, with an ambient temperature of 30 ° C., with a sealed whole glass, HID lamp: 360 W-FEC built-in ceramic metal halide lamp, incandescent lamp : 500 W-halogen lamp, applied pulse: voltage 4 to 5 kV, once / half cycle, half width: 1 μsec, delay time of external starter is 1 minute, other lighting that is not a light-compensated discharge lamp lighting device It was possible to restart in about the same time as the device (about 30 minutes). Further, the conventional light compensation type discharge lamp lighting device having no external starter has not been restarted.

It is explanatory drawing of schematic structure of the optical compensation type discharge lamp lighting device concerning 1st embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing of the operation | movement at the time of starting of the apparatus concerning 1st embodiment, and restarting. It is explanatory drawing of the startability at the time of cold-lighting the discharge lamp which the start-up characteristic deteriorated with the apparatus concerning 1st embodiment. It is explanatory drawing of the controller concerning this invention. It is explanatory drawing of the external starter and ballast concerning this invention. It is explanatory drawing of schematic structure of the optical compensation type discharge lamp lighting device concerning 2nd embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

10, 110 Discharge lamp lighting device 12, 112 External starter 14, 114 Ballast 16, 116 Controller 18, 118 Floodlight 20, 120 Discharge lamp 22, 122 Incandescent lamp 26, 126 Internal starter

Claims (3)

A discharge lamp having a built-in starter that generates a high-pressure pulse at the time of lighting operation at a certain temperature or less, and an incandescent lamp that is lit during a period from when the discharge lamp is turned on until the predetermined amount of light is reached after the discharge lamp is turned on. In a light-compensated discharge lamp lighting device having
A ballast for supplying lighting power to the discharge lamp;
An external starter that is arranged outside the discharge lamp and generates a high-pressure pulse after a certain delay time from the lighting operation;
A light-compensated discharge lamp lighting device comprising:   2. The light-compensated discharge lamp lighting device according to claim 1, wherein the delay time is 60 seconds or more.   3. The light compensation type discharge lamp lighting device according to claim 1, wherein the external starter is provided in the ballast, and the pulse generating coil is also used as the choke coil of the ballast. Discharge lamp lighting device.

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